I don’t think that at amateur levels, it makes any difference who breaks first.

KingSamurai said:

I have been playing in some tournaments where I run into players who refuse to lag the ball to determine whose break. On short races on a template rack, the break is a big advantage and I prefer to lag. It generally is the lower skilled players who insist on flipping and I been having a couple people throw a fit lately. I always thought that the default was lagging if there was a disagreement. I guess I was curious on what opinions are out there regarding this.

Click to expand...

I really don’t care. If it’s a lower level player as you say odds are if they win the break they aren’t going to break and run anyway .. just going to remove some balls in your way playing 8 ball or give you an easier out playing 9 ball so who cares. I try not to over think stuff like this.

Mensabum said:

It's hard to teach tricks to Old Dawgs who already know them. They wrote the book.
I know for a fact I have several wood shafts that will out perform CF any day of the week. But that's prolly just wishful thinking from this old dawg??

Click to expand...

It's all about the maple. The aged stuff from Canada was the best. Thus the early success of Mezz cues.

I Had an older Bushka replica by Adams, when the original CEO ran the company before leaving to work for Calloway, where he got filthy rich. His name was Dick ?

It was a damn good import cue for that time period.

Whatever works for you is just fine

Onepocketking1 said:

Hello AZB Family! I’ve just realized something the other night after shooting some 1hole. My tip had gotten kind of flat due to me not shaping it for a while. I actually was getting more action then when it was rounded. I would love to hear if any of you have experienced this. I’m thinking of leaving my tips a little flatter than my usual dime shape.

Click to expand...

Boom! I learned about this from Little Al Romero. He liked to leave a small flat spot in the middle of tips he installed. When asked why he simply said " better hit."

easy-e said:

Great suggestion! Went there today for a couple of hours. They definitely take care of the equipment! Probably heading back tomorrow.

Click to expand...

They just recovered the tables about 3 weeks ago… good timing!!

Definitely up to the tournament organizer.

But if you think youre an enormous favorite to win the lag against an opponent then it's unlikely them winning the first break is that big of a deal anyway . So in that case, you should just accept the coinflip and move on. Chances are you're not as big of a fav to win the lag as you think you are anyway. But lose the flip half the time and it won't change your win percentage much at all against those feeble players who can't lag.

Put the shoe on the other foot, do you think you're never winning the lag against a better player than yourself? Doubtful. Even against the greats you're still clipping them more than you think unless you just can't perform in the moment and then it wouldn't matter if you did win that coin flip

I have stayed in several Tru (by Hilton) hotels in MS and they all have 8' Brunswick in the lobby. The condition of the table is inconsistent, always with cheap slow cloth and cheap balls.

MattPoland said:

I don’t even think they should ensure he can make a living. That’s still on him. He needs to pay his own phone bill, rent, food, car, etc.

But that sponsorship is to turn him into a walking billboard. They don’t need to be his mommy waking him up on time by rubbing his tummy. But what kind of complacency would it be to not care if he has enough hotel and gas money to even make it to major domestic events. They should be picking up the phone after this saying “What’s going on here? We don’t want this for you.” Or go the other way…

Click to expand...

I think the package offered by a company should be in line with the attention the player can bring to their product. If Billy is under compensated by Meucci then some other company could offer more and attract Billy. If Meucci lost Tyler and or Billy, then they need to reevaluate their package.

skogstokig said:

yea... i think the more interesting question is how you managed to break 8 cf shafts

Click to expand...

The rhino is trash went thru 3. The carbon white break Cue never broke, but the feral came loose three times so I was on my fourth one. The ferrule doesn’t break, but it does become loose. It’s a flaw of their design. And then the playing shaft developed a terrible noise coming from the inside. I bought it from Seyberts and they said when I could send it in, but they probably would not warrant it. And then the guy hit one ball with it and heard the sound and sent me a brand new one. It was like something inside had broken. Upon doing more research, I found out I’m not the only customer who had a problem with Whyte carbon shafts. Everything else I have is predator , Cuetech or Viking never had anything break on me ever.

Magictrat007 said:

me personally I stick to cuetech and predator carbon fiber shafts not because there are any better but because I know they will stand behind their product if something breaks due to normal usage. I broke three rhino carbon fiber shafts and support was non-existent. I’m interested in an SMO but I don’t know whether their policy is on repairs. I have bad luck with equipment sometimes. Also went through 5 carbon Whyte shafts. Which were replaced every single time but after the last replacement, I sold them both brand new. I was tired of dealing with their warranty.

Click to expand...

yea... i think the more interesting question is how you managed to break 8 cf shafts

Just some pics I had on my phone. I can grab more if you're interested.

me personally I stick to cuetech and predator carbon fiber shafts not because there are any better but because I know they will stand behind their product if something breaks due to normal usage. I broke three rhino carbon fiber shafts and support was non-existent. I’m interested in an SMO but I don’t know whether their policy is on repairs. I have bad luck with equipment sometimes. Also went through 5 carbon Whyte shafts. Which were replaced every single time but after the last replacement, I sold them both brand new. I was tired of dealing with their warranty.

Nickel is the way to go.

This thread can close now.

Always nice to see balls for the more obscure games in here. Hope you will have a lot of fun hours with them!

I think the rules are the same for Table Bowls on a billiards table, as they are for normal Bowls. My domain is already bought, and my website will go online tomorrow. Hope it is ok to post a link in here! Then you can compare the rulesets yourself

Is "cheap" bigger in Tixus?

Poolmanis said:

If one learn 3 cushion you would know that half ball cut makes those ball kiss every time..

Click to expand...

The way I shoot, it's the thin ones. I shoot 'em any way because I like how the natural paths work; like pool in a way.

maha said:

sponsors do what is best for them. they are not doing it for their subjects. if one doesn't perform well and create interest in their products they will drop him or scale back their expenditures on that person.

sports figures go in and out of vogue. so its important for the sponsors to move along with the flow.

Click to expand...

The top players are under contracts with cue sponsors, usually one year deals. They are paid a monthly fee. Could be anywhere from 1K-3K month or more. Shane is being paid magnitudes of that!

I negotiated Dennis' cue contracts, when he was on top of his game. First Tiger for six years and then Meucci one year. $1,500-2,000 a month on both of them, plus a % on his line of cues.